Greece Industry

Greece: Industrial production swings back to expansion

March 12, 2015

In January, industrial production expanded a working-day adjusted 0.1% compared to the same month of the previous year, which contrasted the revised 3.2% contraction tallied in December (previously reported: -3.8%). January’s gain reflected an improvement in all of the sub-components that comprise the index.

Industrial output declined 4.7% over the previous month in seasonally-adjusted terms in January, which was below the 2.7% fall in December. January’s result marked a five-month low. Annual average variation in industrial production increased from minus 2.2 in December to minus 1.9 in January.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see industrial production contracting 0.3% in 2015, which is down 0.5 percentage points from last month’s forecast. In 2016, the panel sees industrial production increasing 1.7%.

The number of unemployed fell by 16,769 in August from the previous month and by 141,342 compared with August 2016, according to recent data released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (EL.STAT).
Accordingly, the unemployment rate fell from July’s revised 20.9% (previously reported: 21.0%) to 20.6%, a multi-year low.

Industrial production expanded a working-day-adjusted 5.6% in August compared to the same month of last year, which was notably above July’s revised 2.1% growth (previously reported: +1.7% year-on-year).